Dota 2 To Be Free To Play "With A Twist"

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Valve's upcoming MOBA, Dota 2, will be free to play "with a twist," according to Gabe Newell, the supreme ruler of Valve. During a podcast called Seven Day Cooldown, Gabe Newell commented on the future of Dota 2, specifically, its pricing.

"It's going to be free-to-play - it'll have some twists, but that's the easiest way for people to think about it," Newell said.

"The issue that we're struggling with quite a bit is something I've kind of talked about before, which is how do you properly value people's contributions to a community?

"We're trying to figure out ways so that people who are more valuable to everybody else [are] recognized and accommodated. We all know people where if they're playing we want to play, and there are other people where if they're playing we would [rather] be on the other side of the planet.

"It's just a question of coming up with mechanisms that recognize and reward people who are doing things that are valuable to other groups of people."

G4's certified Dota 2 expert, Leah Jackson, is out of the office on special assignment, so I'm forced to analyze Gabe's meaning on my own. Here goes: It sounds like players who offer more value to the community will get special treatment, perhaps free game time. If you contribute, and are active in the community, your value will increase, thus ushering in rewards.

In a past interview, Newell mentioned he believed "jerks" should have to pay more than a nice person.

"So, in practice, a really likable person in our community should get DOTA 2 for free, because of past behaviour in Team Fortress 2. Now, a real jerk that annoys everyone, they can still play, but a game is full price and they have to pay an extra hundred dollars if they want voice."

Does this mean your user rating will determine the price you pay? How do you interpret Gabe's statement?